SAO PAOLO – VW Brazil has created a special car for drivers who are under 5 feet tall.

SAO PAOLO – VW Brazil has created a special car for drivers who are under 5 feet tall.

Volkswagen Brazil has built a subcompact car that’s smaller than the Golf, smaller even than the Polo. It’s called the Gol, and it is the entry-level vehicle for VW’s South American offerings. Here is a vehicle that would probably be too small for North American roads, but there exists a buyer for which even the Gol may be too large: little people.

With this in mind, VW Brazil has built the Mini-Gol, a little car for little people. The Mini-Gol has been scaled down by about 30-percent–overall length is down to 7.4 feet from 12.8–to better fit the proportions of a driver who’s under 5 feet tall. Inside, the dashboard, instrumentation, and seating all remain intact, albeit with a proportional downsizing to match the scale of the exterior and would-be driver.

At it’s best, the standard-sized Gol packs a 1.6-liter Volkswagen High Torque engine that outputs 101 horsepower and 114 pound-feet of torque. However, under the hood of the Mini-Gol lives a 5.5-horsepower engine that motivates the micro-car to a top speed of only about 17mph. Obviously, the Mini-Gol isn’t what you’d call highway worthy, then again it’s not exactly supposed to be.

VW Brazil has only built two examples of the Mini-Gol. One makes appearances at various car shows, and the other sits on display at Leisure Park Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Here’s the first American to buy the car.